Former premier Anna Bligh's recent biography Through the Wall throws a spotlight on the crucial role the unions played both in her downfall, and in Labor's recent state victory.

Bligh says she knew that her asset sales plan, back in 2009, would cause "real gut-wrenching heartache" within her party and the wider union movement.

"We understood that many would feel betrayed that a Labor government would reach for privatisation, even in these dire circumstances," she says.

The Hawke-Keating and the Beattie governments had embarked on privatisation of public assets, she says, but the impact there was felt by white-collar female employees who did not hold senior party positions.

"I was a female leader tackling the most entrenched industrialised male power bases within the party," she says.

That analysis - whether you agree with it or not - draws a sharp contrast between Palaszczuk and Bligh.

Bligh took the unions on, and copped their wrath as a result. Palaszczuk won them over - by ruling out asset sales - and, in return, they helped deliver her victory.

Bligh's belief is that her asset decision caused an ongoing "terrible, heartbreaking wrench that tore an irreparable hold in the fragile relationship between the labour movement and the Labor Party in Queensland" and the relationship had to be "rethought and remade".

Palaszczuk did that when she signalled a new coupling of the Party's political and union arms; a marriage that allowed Labor to claim victory on January 31.

But what happens now? If Palaszczuk has to make a hard decision that runs counter to the same unions that helped transport her into power, will they make life difficult for the ALP, which is holding onto government with one vote?

And how will business see any decision that is seen to be supportive of those same powerful union allies she worked with to win government?

So far, the strategy has been on message: a consultative government that will listen to business and the unions and forge a way ahead.

But it's a big stretch to argue that the decisions that will be needed over the next three years will be applauded equally by both unions and business.

And that's when it will get tricky for the Premier, and the government she leads with a wafer-thin majority of one (and an Independent at that).

Business says it was pleased to be invited to a government briefing, just after the election, and on the same day unions attended.

But they continue to watch Palaszczuk and her Labor team closely, and with the first sign of a step to the Left they're ready to call a halt to the dance.